South Island School
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| Established | 1977 |
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| School type | Private, comprehensive, international, secondary, co-educational. |
| Principal | Mr. John Wray |
| Students | approx. 12001 |
| Years | Year 7-13 |
| Location | 50 Nam Fung Road Aberdeen Hong Kong |
| Information | (852) 2555 9313 sis@sis.edu.hk |
| Website | http://www.sis.edu.hk/ |
South Island School (南島中學) is a school founded by English Schools Foundation in Hong Kong, located on No.50 Nam Fung Road, Shouson Hill, Aberdeen, Hong Kong SAR China in the southern part of Hong Kong Island.
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[edit] School's Aims
- To develop students' confidence, self-esteem and a range of positive values and personal qualities.
- To produce enthusiastic, active, independent and lifelong learners.
- To equip students with 21st Century skills including international and multicultural understanding.
- To provide an excellent academic education through which our students can achieve their personal best.
- To provide outstanding enrichment opportunities within and beyond the school curriculum.
- To develop student's sense of responsibility and active involvement in the communities in which they live and work.
[edit] History
In 1977, South Island School was founded as a nucleus of additional classes to accommodate students within the ages of 11 and 18 from Island School, a fellow ESF School. The school moved to its current location at 50 Nam Fung Road in 1983. The first version of the school consisted of the Ching Ling Soon Block (shortened to C-block in everyday conversation), and an outdoor swimming pool.
As the school grew in size, more facilities were required. The next big change to the school came with the construction of the Stephen Hawking Block (shortened to S-block in school conversation), and the change of the outdoor swimming pool to an indoor one, allowing all-year round swimming lessons. [1]
The school also featured in the film "Tiger of Wanchai" rather aptly, given it's style of construction with narrow aperture windows, as a prison. Look out for the Brian Tilbrook ICAC sign.
By 2003, the school was starting to show its age. A growing student population warranted the construction of a new school block. Also, renovation of the now twenty-year old C-block was needed. Construction began on a new eight-story building that would accompany the C-block and the S-block. By 2004, the new block was completed, and was designated the Da Vinci Block (called D-block in school conversation).
In the next few years, the school's classrooms were upgraded with the installation of interactive whiteboards, while the renovation of the C-block continued. In 2005, the school announced that it would be switching away from the A-levels to the International Baccalaureate. The Year 2007 was set as the implementation year for the IB, meaning that the current Year 11 would be the first students to take the IB Diploma Programme, which allows students to take six courses, as compared with currently four As-levels, excluding General Studies.
[edit] Students
As South Island School is an international school, many nationalities are represented in the school. The majority of students in SIS are Hong Kong-born Chinese; however, many other nationalities can be found in SIS, with considerable groups of Indian, British, and Korean students. There are 3 sections:
- The Lower Section (Years 7-8)
- The Middle Section (Years 9-11)
- The Senior Section (Years 12-13)
Students are separated into seven houses, each with their own appropriate colors:
- Aylward - Yellow (named after Gladys Aylward)
- Hillary - Blue (named after Edmund Hillary)
- Jefferson - Purple (named after Thomas Jefferson)
- Marden - Orange (named after Anne Marden)
- Noble - Light blue (named after Christina Noble)
- Schweitzer - Green (named after Albert Schweitzer)
- Tolstoy - Red (named after Leo Tolstoy)
The members of each house compete in various competitions throughout the year, ranging from Athletics, swimming to Music and Debating. Depending on the finishing place, each house is awarded different amounts of points. At the end of the year, the total number of points is counted and in the last Assembly before school closes for the summer, the House cup is presented to the winning House. For the last three years Hillary House and Schweitzer house have dominated the cup. Hillary winning in 2003 and 2004 while Schweitzer winning in 2005.
[edit] Faculties
The faculties are as follows:
- Careers
- Creative Arts: Art, Drama, Media Studies, Music
- Design Technology: Food Technology,Textiles Technology,Graphics
- English
- English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
- General Studies
- Humanities: History, Geography, Religious Studies, Economics, Business Studies
- ICT
- Learning Support
- Mathematics
- Modern Foreign Languages: Mandarin, French, German, Spanish
- Physical Education
- PSE (Personal and Social Education)
- Science: Biology, Physics, Chemistry
[edit] Catering
South Island School features an array of cuisines served by a private catering company, currently Chartwells (though controversy surrounds the pricing of the products). The refectory offers gracious seating space to accommodate a large body of students during peak hours, allowing the facilitation of several different activities.
Snacks consisting of various confectionaries such as chicken wings and hot dogs are sold throughout the day, starting at 10:20 AM and ends at school closure.
However, during the past two years after the current contractor was signed there has been a array of complaints and unhappiness on the catering company overcharging students. But, this is soon to change as a new catering company will receive the contract for the start of the new Academic Year.
[edit] Student Council
The Student Council was formed in South Island School so that students would be able to speak their opinions out. At the start of each academic year, each year elects a Year Representative from a pool of Class Representatives which are selected by each class. The elected Year Representatives sit in the Student Council with the Headmaster, The Prefects and the Head Boy and Girl. In this forum they debate the problems of the school, and come up with solutions. In recent years the Student Council has been critisized for not solving the problems of the students. However, in the most recent Academic Year, (2005-2006) numerous problems were solved and this was recognised by the majority of Students.
[edit] Activities
South Island School offers a range of extra curricular activities. These can vary from Squash to Chess. Also, each student is obliged to take part in two house events during the year. These two events are usually the Ahtletics Competition and the Swimming Gala. As well as inter-house competitions, S.I.S. competes in various inter-school competitions, such as basketball and football. In recent years, we have dominated basketball.
[edit] Debating
In the Academic year of 2005-2006 a debating team was sent in to compete in Hong Kong's biggest inter-school competition. Suprisingly, the team of 6, which had never debated before was able to reach the finals and ousted Ying Wa Girl's School to win the Sing Tao Debating Cup.
